The 50th session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS 50) convenes against the backdrop of a deepening cost of living crisis not seen in more than a generation. There is growing consensus that while urgent measures are needed to get food to those who need it most, only fundamental transformation will tackle the underlying structures that drive our unequal and unsustainable food systems.

In its recent report, Note on Critical, Emerging and Enduring Issues for Food Security and Nutrition, the CFS High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) observed that while there is wide agreement on the need to transform food systems “… questions of power asymmetry, inequality, diverging economic and political interests and geographic variability are intertwined in debates about how best to evaluate, manage and implement food systems transformation.”

In the wake of the last major food price crisis in 2008-2010, more than 140 CFS member states endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Forest and Fisheries (VGGT). The Guidelines made the critical link between the fundamental human right to food and the means to achieve it, through ensuring secure access to land and natural resources for those who are most dependent on these resources.

CFS 50 marks the 10th anniversary of the VGGT. It therefore draws acute attention to continuing failure by the global community to tackle entrenched economic, social and political structures to achieve the overarching objective of “the progressive realization of the right to adequate food.”

With a central focus on the link between human rights and land rights and what insights we can draw for the governance of the food system, TMG will contribute to several CFS-related side events.

• 3 October (Pre-CFS event): Third Multi-Stakeholder Meeting on the governance of early warning systems and early action. This TMG-led discussion will build on analysis of the recent desert locust upsurge to explore emerging data-driven governance models to mitigate against new transboundary threats and build more resilient food systems.

• 6-7 October (Pre-CFS event): A Decade of the CFS VGGT: assessing progress and enhancing accountability: TMG will host a session on how to strengthen accountability for responsible land governance, and contribute to discussions on monitoring, evidence and data on the second day of this FAO-led high level event.

• 12 October [CFS Side Event 14] Human rights in global land acquisitions and agricultural supply chains: Global frameworks and human rights due diligence. TMG's work on a human-rights based monitoring tool, the Human Rights and Land Navigator, will be featured at this event.

• 13 October [CFS Side Event 31]: Unlocking the potential of the VGGT through Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). Co-organized by a consortium of UN technical agencies and land governance institutions, this CFS side event will launch the technical guide produced by the UNCCD and FAO on integrating the VGGT into land degradation neutrality programmes to strengthen tenure security, particularly for the most vulnerable groups.

Overview of all CFS 50 side events